Honeycomb-foundation machine



H. c. BLANCHARD. nowevcoms FOUNDATION MACHINE:

APPLICATION FILED APR. 26' I919.

Patented J an 27, 1920.

' shaped cell in the same direction,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

HERBERT C. BLANCI-IARI), OF MEDINA, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO THE A. I. ROOT COMPANY,

OF MEDINA, OHIO,

A CORPORATION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 27, 1920.

Application filed April 26, 1919. Serial No. 292,940.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT C. BLANCH- ARD, of Medina, Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Honeycomb-Foundation Machines, and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof.

The object of my invention is to produce, by the use of machinery, the cell-formation of comb foundation in such close correspondence with what the bees themselves make, that they will not find it necessary to reform it before making use of it. Such foundation is ordinarily made from sheets of wax passed between rolls or cylinders having hexagonal type or dies on their peripheries, and the sheets in being pulled from the type or. dies are stretched with the result that the cells are distorted from the true hexagonal shape by elongation in the direction of the pull. By my invention, I utilize this unavoidable stretch of the wax sheet to produce cells of normal shape, and I do it by making the dies or type less in width, in the direction of travel and pull of the sheet, than the width of the normaland by an the amount of stretch or amount equal to takes place.

elongation of the sheet that In the drawin *s: Figure 1 is a pdan view of one of the rolls of a foundation mill, shown in outline, with but a few of the dies or type delineated;

Fig. 2, is a detail view, on a much enlarged scale, of one of the type or dies, and showing the contour of the normal hexagon in dotted lines;

Fig. 3 is a detail view in perspective of one of the type, when, as in the case selected for illustration, the type exists as individuals vand are separately removable from the drum or roll.

In the case selected for illustration, the dies or type are formed separately from the roll or drum 10, instead of being engraved or cut in the periphery thereof, and each, as shown best in Fig. 3, has a sixsided, pyramidal head 11, for indenting the sheet of wax and a shank or stem 12 by which it is attached to the drum or roll, which may be conveniently built up of side by side disks or rings clamped to a shaft and having sockets to receive the shanks. The head 11 has three rhomboidal facets which meet in a central apex, and a single head of one roll comes opposite the counter die on the opposite roll, formed by three adjoining heads, and thus the wax is shaped so that the bottom of each shell, on both sides of the sheet, is a pyramidal cavity with three inclined rhomboidal sides.

The type are placed on the roll so that a line parallel with the roll axis connects diametrically opposite angles or corners of the hexagon, and I make the distance between opposite sides of the hexagonal head, (such sides being designated 13 in Fig. 2) on a line at right angles to such axis, (or in the direction of travel of the wax sheet between the rolls) less than the distance between such sides were the shape of the head a true hexagon,and less an amount to equal the stretch of the wax sheet where pulled from the type, so that the 'finished product delivered by the rolls will have cells of normal shape. In Fig. 2 the dotted lines show the contour of the true hexagon and the full lines the modified contour thereof which is given the head, to secure the desirable result of natural form of cell in the foundation.

What I claim is 1. A foundation machine roll having hexagonal form dies, whose dimensions in the direction of revolution of the roll are less than those of a true hexagon of the same width on a line parallel with the roll axis.

2. A foundation machine roll having hexagonal form dies, whose dimensions in the direction of revolution of the roll are less than those of a true hexagon of the same width on a line parallel with the roll axis, said dies being formed of units composed of a pyramidal head and a shank.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing, I have hereunto set my hand.

HERBERT C. BLANCHARD. 

